Decontamination of a lead-polluted school following the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris

April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris goes up in flames. When the lead from the roof and Viollet-Le Duc’s famous spire melts, millions of microparticles of lead oxide fly off and fall back into the surrounding area, contaminating pavements and sidewalks, parks and balconies… And local schools.

In the days following the disaster an analysis campaign conducted in several schools revealed very high quantities of lead in the dust at ground level: over 40,000 µg/m² for a regulatory authorized level of 1,000 µg/m². Under these conditions, it’s impossible to envisage a school start with all the health guarantees. The city of Paris is looking for a specialized company to decontaminate one of the most impacted schools during August 2019. Despite the summer period Séché Urgences Interventions is responding positively and mobilizing all its resources. The aim is to complete the work before the start of the new school year in September.

A depollution worksite in the historic heart of Paris

Three stages will be necessary to achieve a lead content of less than 100 µg/m² (i.e. a 99.75% abatement rate):

1. The decontamination and removal of furniture from children’s play areas;
2. The application of a surfactant to the asphalt of the school’s 3 courtyards (1851 m2) prior to excavation, in order to limit the release of dust;
3. The laying of new asphalt on the school’s 3 courtyards.

Decontamination of the ground in the courtyard of Saint Benoit school.

Dismantling of children’s games in the playground polluted by lead oxide.

More than 300 tons of waste will finally be evacuated by our intervention teams (mobilization of 15 employees) in just 16 days. A real challenge for this worksite located in a particularly narrow street in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, where we had to maintain circulation while getting worksite machinery inside schoolyards that were difficult to access, and loading trucks to remove waste.

Means deployed

• Unité Mobile de Décontamination (UMD) to enable decontamination of our teams every shift
• Assisted ventilation masks with A2B2E2KP3 and A2P3 cartridges to protect our teams from Lead particles
• Covering work clothing, disposable coveralls with overshoes
• Crawler excavators to excavate contaminated asphalt (x2)
• High performance vacuum cleaners to vacuum lead dust from the ground

Dust removal operations in the urban environment? THE GOOD REFLEXION

More emergency interventions

• Heavy Fuel Oil Collection and Management after the Grande America Sinking
• Managing contaminated effluent after a fire